There are many who try to reconcile the tensions in Antigone, from Ismene who advises Antigone to be cautious to Creon himself who in vain decides to free Antigone from her rocky vault and raise a mound for the dead body of her brother he exposed. However, it is the old seer, Tiresias, whose angry prophecies to the insulting Creon finally make Creon recognize the error of his pride and stubbornness. Like he informs Oedipus he is the murderer of his father and the husband of his mother, so Tiresias explains to Creon it is his fault that Thebes is doomed to plague “And it is you—your high resolve that sets this plague on Thebes” (Sophocles 111).
Creon chooses to deny the old seer’s prophecies and insults him by telling him they are lies and he was bribed to say such monstrous things. However, this only serves to make Tiresias even more upset. He explains to Creon he is sick and has made mistakes. However, he tries to explain that it is never to late to redress errors if the perpetrator of them is willing to correct the errors he has committed by making amends to the victims of his mistakes “But once the wrong is done, a man can turn his back on folly, misfortune too, if he tries to make amends, however low he’s fallen, and stops his bullnecked ways. Stubbornness brands you for stupidity—pride is a crime. No, yield to the dead! Never stab the fighter when he’s down. Where’s the glory, in killing the dead twice” (Sophocles 112).
These are harsh words to lob at a king, but Tiresias knows he is right and he is trying to inform Creon his behavior has not been so kingly. Creon, on the other hand, reacts by becoming angry and insulting to Tiresias. Tiresias reminds Creon he helped him saved the city and after a slew of insults from Creon he warns him of the future he has shaped through his stubborn and prideful actions “The chariot of the sun will not race through so many c
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